[LINK] DBCDE tender - Whatthe?

[Roger Clarke]

At 8:28 +1030 29/2/08, Brenda Aynsley wrote:
>Roger Clarke wrote:
>>  So does this mean that AusCERT is to have the rug pulled from under it?
>>  http://national.auscert.org.au/render.html?cid=2999

A further comment I should have added:

Is this competition policy gone wild?  Has some economist argued 
that, because Norton, McAfee, et al. are in the business, there is 
insufficient evidence of market failure, and hence subsidies should 
be removed, or at the very least the market should be tested?  The 
mad rationalist-economist dominance of policy on the Canberra scene 
is on the wane, but unfortunately far too slowly.

Let's hope that:
(1)  AusCERT can write a top-rate proposal that meets the reviewers' 
needs (without wasting too much of their limited funds on flash 
consultants in the process);  and
(2)  none of the commercial operators see this as an opportunity to 
get on the inside of government (and thereby achieve market 
dominance).

The great irony is that the same economists who hate governments 
subsidising things permit companies to do it as much as they like.

It's given dignified names like cross-leveraging, and enterprise 
portfolio management.  So a company would be permitted to bid way 
below the actual  costs of performing the service, or even nothing, 
and pay for it from (monopoly-derived super-)profits from other 
sources.


-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW